Through an acupuncture style small-scale design intervention, the ACTIVATE! competition challenges individuals to create one or more objects that can activate a vacant site, is universally accessible, and fosters multi-generational community interaction for $1,000 or less.

Building on the success of the 2010 competition, a short video about it can be viewed here http://chicagoideas.com/videos/99 the winning designs have fostered a dialogue about open space and how design can be the catalyst for the creation of meaningful and joyful places that facilitate community engagement. The 2012 competition site is a Chicago Public School with a ‘blind spot’ on their campus that attracts unwanted loitering and illegal activity. Site photos, plans, project information and previous winning installations are located on the Open Architecture Network project page http://openarchitecturenetwork.org/projects/activate_design_comp and email furniturecomp@afh-chicago.org the chapter directly with questions.

The competition closes on February 29th, 2012, so take advantage of the leap year with an extra day for design.

Get your votes in by midnight to have a say in our 2012-2013 board members! As of this morning turnout is running a little low, so if you're a dues paying member, please click below and give us your opinion. It takes less than 5 minutes to complete the ballot and your votes mean a lot to both our current board and our candidates.

Voting is limited to dues-paying members, but you can still sign up and be eligible to vote! Your membership with the chapter network must be processed by February 29th. Dues go to our national organization, where they are used to support international chapters that could not otherwise support themselves. At $25, it's by far one of the least expensive design organization memberships in Chicago!

Currently there are 58 dues-paying members, so let's strive for 100% voter turnout this year!

Reflecting the current state of architecture, urbanism, and landscape discourse, Architecture for Humanity - Chicago, School for the Art Institute Chicago, and the Village of Igaraí are proud to announce, 1.99 REAL HOUSING: Communities + Designers, a call for ideas. In an effort to advance the territory between top-down and bottom-up planning, for all types of interim, emergency, public and affordable housing design, 1.99 REAL HOUSING seeks to create a design platform that utilizes the collective intelligence of designers, makers and users to design creative interventions and customizable retrofits for 1) private, 2) shared and 3) public spaces with/by/for residents who currently live in a "formal" housing development in Igaraí, Brazil. For more information, visit www.afh-chicago.org

To stay up to date on the process and progress visit our Facebook Group "1.99 Real Housing".

Matanya’s Hope is dedicated to breaking the cycle of poverty in Kenya, East Africa, by offering educational sponsorship to children who would otherwise have none and by assisting with projects critical to their survival. Matanya’s Hope is looking into building a secondary boarding school where for the children being sponsored and to be able create a larger impact on their future and growth
Small core group is currently working on programming/research/master planning to be delivered to the client early June. Through the months of July-August, futher site information will be gathered for a group charrette meeting to be conducted sometime in October 2011.

This boarding school in rural Tanzania is one of the few opportunities residents have to obtain secondary education in the Mara district. As part of their goal to expand their educational opportunities to a full sixth form (British) system, we are coordinating design of a multipurpose resource center that will serve as a school and community library and a teacher enhancement center.

Kickoff charrette to be held Saturday, October 8th from 9am-4pm in rm 1227 of the Sullivan Center at SAIC at 38 S. Wabash in the loop. Come be a part of the design! Participants will work in teams to develop schematic schemes that day, and will optionally have until Monday, October 24th to finish documenting their ideas before they're sent to our partners TDS and UMABU for review. Lunch will be provided. Please spread the word and email Laura if you plan to attend, we'll put you on the security guest list.

Miracle House is a woman's shelter in Des Plaines that provides women a place to live and piece their lives together after making the decision to stay sober. We are currently working with Miracle House to expand their facilities and better serve their residents.

The project kicked-off last Saturday with a site visit and field measurements. If you are interested in participating in this project, please contact Lety.Chapter Business

Support board member Joseph Altshuler and collaborators as they celebrate the sophomore release of their semiannual design journal SOILED! Download a PDF version and visit the website at http://soiledzine.org/

New: CHAPTER NETWORK MICRO-GRANT FUNDRAISER - September 12th-26th

All the chapters are jointly attempting to raise $25,000 to support the Chapter Network Micro-Grant Fund during this two-week online campaign. Please spread the contribution link via Facebook and Twitter! http://architectureforhumanity.org/donate/sponsor

Update: ARGO TEA ChariTea

We are pleased to announce that we are the seasonal charity partner for the ARGO TEA ChariTea program! 10% of the net proceeds from the sale of their seasonal drink will go towards Architecture for Humanity and directly to the Chicago chapter. Thirsty? Be sure to drink up and spread the word! http://www.argotea.com/about_values_charitea.shtml

Update: National Updates | Member Dues
Architecture for Humanity HQ has instituted a membership dues program for its local Chapters. At $25 it's easily one of the cheapest memberships you can find, of course that doesn't begin to mention the good it does.